Daily Archives: February 21, 2014

We cheer on our USA team as we currently hold the most medals for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. Our goal at American Made Matters for the Olympics was to provide resources to have the apparel for the athletes made in the USA. For the 2012 Summer Olympics, we sent a letter to Ralph Lauren after the public outcry regarding the uniforms being made overseas. This letter’s purpose was to offer our support for creating the apparel in the USA. We offered to provide Ralph Lauren with our members’ resources to coordinate all their designs in America. Here is the letter that we sent:

Dear Ralph Lauren,

We, the members of American Made Matters, feel strongly that our Olympians should be outfitted with American made apparel and accessories. We have over seventy* members who are still producing product in the U.S. and are proud to provide jobs in our communities and the highest quality product for our customers. We stand ready to work with your designers to produce any product needed to support our U.S. Olympic team including the outfit for the opening and closing ceremony.

We have members who can produce hats, shirts, jackets, bags, belts, pants, socks, and footwear. Our employees would be proud to know that their work would be supporting our athletes and on display for the world to see.

Please advise us on the next steps in working to create a 100% U.S. made outfit for our athletes.

Sincerely,

Don Rongione
President
American Made Matters

While Ralph Lauren did not take us up on our offer, they did respond positively by having the opening and closing ceremony uniforms made in the USA. We are happy that Ralph Lauren made the decision to help grow the American economy by having these uniforms made in the States. Best of luck to the USA Team as they go for the gold and finish strong in the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics!